Lost and Found
by Trotline
Summary: AU alternate ending to KH1, takes place as if the game had ended right after the final scene with Sora, Kairi, and their promise. Kaiora


This is a bit of a plot bunny that hit me in one of my less than sober moments. It's an alternate ending to KH1, i've completely taken out the crossroads scene, and this takes place as if the game had ended right after the final scene with Sora, Kairi, and their promise. Completely disregards KH2, CoM, and all the others i've failed to mention. Yes, this is a Kaiora, but no, it's not _too_ sappy, as opposed to most of my other fics. I'm trying a bit of humor, and staying away from angst/drama just to see how I do.

This was beta read by me, so I most likely missed a few things.

I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Final Fantasy, or any of that fun stuff.

* * *

Dawn broke on a thursday morning, lighting up the coast as it had for countless years before.

As the local merchants lined up their wares for yet another profitable day, the small village came alive with activity. The air came buzzed with the sounds of squeaking bicycles, raucous screeching of tropical birds, steady thumping from the fishermen preparing bait for yet another good day of fishing, and the general commotion of a thriving village.

Then everything..froze.

And just as quickly, everything returned to normal. Most of the villagers never missed a step, only one seemed to notice something had happened.

Confused eyes, a peculiar shade of amethyst, flashed back and forth. '_Did something just..happen?'. _More investigation yeilded nothing, so with a quick turn, the young woman continued on her way, auburn hair streaming in the tropical breeze.

----------

_'What..happend?'_

With a groan, a young man rolled over, dusting his clothes with white sand. Images swirled around in a dizzying kaleidoscope of color, temporarily flooring the teenager. As he fought to regain his equilibrium, he slowed his breathing and attempted to make sense of everything.

_'Okay, whipped up on Ansem, opened the door to Kingdom Hearts, talked to Riku, shut the door, and...white..then nothing. Think, man! What happened, and where in the blue hells am I?' _With another shake of his head, and a herculean effort, he managed to wrench his eyes open.

And he saw blue.

Lots of blue.

"Okay..that's an ocean..and a sky, and im laying in sand. That would put me.." The teen shook his thick brown hair out of his eyes. As he went to answer his own question when he was cut off by a groan and a sarcastic voice..a _very _familiar voice. "You're obviously on a beach, genius!"

With a yelp, a bounce, and a rather uncomfortable roll down to the water line, blazing blue eyes snapped up and narrowed at the speaker. The figure sitting in the sand shook the gathering sand out of his shoulder length silver hair, and laid his aquamarine eyes on incredulous blue eyes. "So, how did we pull this one off..Sora?" A simple question, but one that neither one had an answer to. The silver haired young man groaned, and let out an exaggerated stretch, and made to his feet..just in time to be spear tackled back down into the sand by a brunette missle.

"What the hell, man?" exclaimed Sora. "You're supposed to be behind the big door, and im supposed to be on the other side of it..and what happened to your hair!?" Sora was confused, and truth be told, a bit frightened. When he had last seen his aqua-eyed companion, he had been all of five and a half feet tall, had much shorter hair, and a voice that liked to squeak every few words. The man in front of him was just that, a man, complete with a steady deep voice and hair down to his mid back. Sora didn't pause for a second before firing another salvo of confused jabbering. "Last I remember, I spoke to Kairi, she drifted away..and..nothing. What's the deal man?" The silver haired man shook his head, and shoved Sora off of him, standing up and gazing across the near endless ocean. From his spot on the ground, Sora observed the pensive gaze of his companion, and grew more uneasy. "Riku? Are we in trouble?"

--------

Over the din of the villagers, a very accented voice was heard clearly. "Good day for blitzball, ya?" The distinct voice came from a behemoth of a man, easily over six and a half feet tall, and sculpted from years of hard work and play. Adding to his height, was his hairdo, which was close cropped except for a huge cowlick in the front, all blazing orange in color. "Wonder if we gonna have enough people for a full game today, eh? Last week was a bummer, ya know?" The giant asked the young man next to him. His companion was much smaller, standing at just over five and a half feet, but had the look of a lifelong athelete. Deep bronze complection was offset by his sunny blonde hair, running down his shoulders in waves. "Dunno man, but we gotta do what we gotta do."

As the duo continued toward their practice spot, they paused. Standing in 'their' area were a pair of strangers. The giant glanced over at them, with a hint of curiosity. "Wonder if they play ball, ya?" The blonde shook his head, studying the two at a distance. "Dunno, man. But that one..with the silver hair, he look familiar to you?" The large man studied the pair more intently, thinking back to everyone he knew that had that shade of hair color. "Only person I knew with silver hair was Riku, ya? An he's dead. Whachu think, Tidus?" The blonde, Tidus, shook his head again. "Like I said, man, I dunno. Wanna go grab Kairi for a second opinion?" Tidus was reluctant to bother her, but as the last remaining member of the 'Trio', she would most definitely want to be informed of any 'familiar faces'...that and she would most definitely physically damage one of them if it turned out to be 'them' and she wasn't one of the first on the scene.

As Tidus began his treck back to the village, the orange haired giant made his way down to the two. "Yo, you guys ain't lost, ya?" Shaking his head at such a lame greeting call, he continued to study them as he got closer.

----------

"So, it looks like we've lost a couple years somewhere, Sora." Riku stated with a frown. "You've obviously grown too, you aren't our 'cute widdle so-wa' anymore." Sora pulled a face at both the reminder of his old nickname, and Riku's obnoxious baby talk. The brunette shook some more sand out of his hair, and went to walk toward the water. Without warning, he stumbled over his own feet, and landed face down in the surf. '_What the blazes was that all about!?' _Sora sputtered on salt water and sand. When he looked up to his companion, he was irritated to find Riku down on the ground, blue in the face with laughter. "Die..painfully." was Sora's eloquent response.

After regaining his feet, Sora stumble-walked back up to Riku. "My balance is all messed up! What the hell happened!?" Sora exclamed impatiently. As Riku finally regained control of his laughter, he snorted at both Sora's predicament, and at the glare he was being leveled. "My guess, last time you walked, you were all of five feet tall. The 'growth spurt', if we can call it that, has messed you up." Riku said in a tight voice, snorting as Sora stumbled again. "So, after you learn to walk again, we need to figure out where we are, and what happened." Sora glared at Riku again over the 'reminder' of his lack of balance, and the irritated brunette reiterated his previous statement. "Go die..painfully. Jeez, never though i'd say this, but being tall sucks..and how is it that you've not been stumblin' all over the place?" Riku smirked at the brunette's irritation. "Keep your knees bent, didn't you learn anything from swinging around that huge key? As for where..I have an idea. And what happened? I haven't the slightest, outside of the fact that we must have been held in where ever it was that we were a bit longer than expected." Riku's eyes glittered in malice, thinking of the man that caused the entire situation, Ansem.

When Sora finally got the hang of walking again, he strode back up toward where his companion was standing. "Maybe we can actually get on with our lives now?" Riku said, as Sora finally made it over to him. "Get on with our lives?" Sora deadpanned. "That sounds great..but after all of our traveling, won't that get...ya know..boring?" The brunette rambled on. "I mean, Sephiroth is still out there..and he's not particularly happy with yours truly, I KNOW the heartless aren't all gone, are we supposed to just..sit here?"

Riku shot Sora a glare. "Boring? Don't you even recognize where we are?" He said in an even voice. "Look around you, and keep in mind...you do have a promise to keep, right?." At the mention of a promise, Sora's eyes widened, and he dropped to his knees and soaked in the sights, now growing in familiarity. "Destiny Islands...Kairi..."

"Yo, you guys ain't lost, ya?"

------------

The pair shot up, both prepared to battle, and relaxed as they noticed a villager headed toward them. They were a bit startled at the mans size, but his seemingly nervous bouncing of the blitzball in his hands put them at a slight ease.

"Hey, big guy! This is Destiny Islands, innit?" shouted Sora, and Riku palmed his face at his shorter companions lack of manners. With a slug to the head, and a kick to the shins, Riku looked up at the giant, completely ignoring the cursing and complaining going on next to him. "What my obnoxious friend here ment to say was, 'Hello, my name is Stupid.'". His aqua eyes dancing in amusement. "I'm Riku, and this is my ...acquaintance, Sora." Riku ignored the glaring of his friend, and the shock on the face of the large man before him. As Riku studied the man, he had a flash of recognition and continued, "Wakka? So this must be it...Destiny Islands." Neither of the young men were prepared for the giant to go sheet white, waver a bit, and hit the ground in a dead faint.

"Well..that went well..wouldn't you say?"

----------

As Tidus made his way back down to the beach, he glanced back at his companion. Kairi was a damn good looking young woman, but he could never think of her romantically, not when she looked so sad. "Sorry to drag you down here for this." He started, his tennor voice covering the distance between the two, "But we have a couple strangers down here, and one looks...well..you need to see it for yourself."

The two continued toward the beach, and Kairi reached out to stop the blonde. She had to have an explanation. "Tidus, don't be evasive, you suck at it. Just spit it out, eh?" She stated, and continued before she could stop herself, "What's the worst it could be?" Tidus paled at that. _'How can I go about this? If I tell her who it looks like, and it's not him, she'll be crushed, and if I don't tell her something...well, she may just crush __**me **__judging by the looks she's givin' me!'_

Tidus paced a bit, muttering to himself, trying to avoid the irritated glare coming from the redhead. Finally he stopped, took a deep breath, and went for it. "Well, me 'an Wakka were headed down to the beach for blitz practice. When we got down there, we saw a couple guys standing on the beach...one looked a bit..er..familliar." He stopped there, scratching the back of his head in his nervousness. Kairi's eyes widened in confusion, "Why would you come get me, then? Why not just...you know..go down there and talk to them?" Tidus licked his lips in nervousness and dove in again, "See, the guy had...silver hair, 'an we only know one guy wi..." Tidus was unexpectedly cut off by the redhead flying past him, at a dead sprint toward the beach.

"Only thing I love more than seeing her close up, is watching her leave! Mmmhmm....gak! Wait for me, Kairi!"

-------------------

Both Sora and Riku hesitantly poked Wakka with their toes, hoping they hadn't killed him. "Wakka always was a bit soft." Riku commented, as he poked Wakka a bit harder. They both amused themselves by trying to wake up the slumbering giant, neither having much success, when they heard an unholy war cry.

"STEP AWAY FROM THE WAKKA, YOU FIENDS!!" Tidus roared as he prepared to punish the people who put poor Wakka in this particular predicament. With another unholy howl, he launched off the sand, seeming to gain a slight blue aura, and flew straight at the brunette, his feet extended in a powerful and very dramatic torpedo kick.

Sadly, just as Tidus reached Sora, the keyblade master took a step to the side, and the blonde flew gracefully into the surf, landing with an impressive splash. The two left standing exchanged bewildered looks. The two confused young men were startled out of their stunned sillence by a loud and very unlady like snort from the top of the sand bar.

Both Sora and Riku were stunned at the sight of their old friend, and for the exact same reason. Their eyes met, and almost like telepathy, they shared the same sentence at the forefront of their minds; _'Danm, she's a fox!'._

-----------------

Kairi froze at the top of the sand bar, unable to believe what she was seeing. _'How did Tidus manage to pull off that kind of hangtime?' _Then she comprehended his warcry, and was both impressed by 'aura' and taken aback by his ..sudden landing. With an almighty snort, she hit the ground, laughing harder than she had in three years.

After a mighty effort, she managed to control and compose herself, and she confidently made her way down to the two strangers. "Hey strangers, im Kairi. Tidus said...."

And the world fell away from them. Time froze, and all that was left were two boys and a girl.

"R-Riku...Sora?" Kairi felt the amusement from Riku, and something completely diffrent from Sora. Then Kairi seemed to dematerialize, and with enough force to make a blitzer green with envy, she basically appeared on Sora's chest, and they both went flying into the surf, to join Tidus.

--------------

All Sora felt was the surf soaking his clothes..again, and Kairi's lips. The two seemed to meld together, and time stopped...again. But then again, time is overated when you have all of it in the world.

-------------

With a genuine smile, Riku watched the two meet in a kiss that couldn't be described in words. With a shake of his head, he drug Tidus up near Wakka, and looked back. "Hey Sora! I though you said that getting on with our lives was gonna be boring?" he yelled with another smile.

------------

With her head burried in Sora's neck, she murmured "Boring?"

Sora looked down at her, and was stunned by the love shining back at him.

-----------

"I think I can live with it."

_**~FIN~**_


End file.
